“And you can return to the foundation and wait for further questioning.”
Barton, who was staring at the paper, wasn’t disappointed. Instead, he felt relieved, and he hurriedly nodded.
“Alright.”
After reading the traces left behind by Vernal, Barton’s intuition told him that the matter was very dangerous.
As an ordinary person, avoiding danger was an instinctive choice.
Of course, this was also because Vernal could only be considered one of his ordinary friends. It wasn’t worth taking a huge risk and getting involved in this matter.
After answering, Barton turned around immediately and walked past the hotel owner and attendant and arrived at the street.
This time, he didn’t choose to take public transport and instead boarded a rental carriage.
Barton’s trip outside was considered as a special matter. It was rather urgent, and with the deputy director of the Compliance Department to testify for him, he could make a claim for the expenses incurred.
The difference between spending the foundation’s money and using one’s own salary was two completely different feelings.
On the way, Barton looked at the scenery outside the window and couldn’t help but think about Vernal’s current situation.
Is he still alive?
The room was filled with a strong stench of blood…
I hope he’s still alive. May the Lord bless him.
If he’s still alive, where will he be now?
Where…
Could it be?
There!
As his thoughts raced, Barton suddenly thought of a possibility. He quickly instructed the coach driver to change routes and head home.
Not long after, he returned home.
“What happened?” Barton’s wife approached him with a surprised look.
It was still quite some time before lunch, let alone getting off work.
Barton didn’t take off his hat or jacket. Without answering her question, he directly asked, “Was Vernal here?”
“He came to visit you fifteen minutes ago. I told him to wait in the study room and send Wells to the foundation to look for you,” Barton’s wife replied honestly.
Wells was their family’s valet. And clearly, fifteen minutes wasn’t enough for him to reach the Loen Relic Search and Preservation Foundation.
This was what puzzled Barton’s wife the most.
“Right.” Barton nodded heavily. He hurriedly passed through the living room, went up to the second floor, and entered the study.
In the study room, the windows were wide open and the curtains were slightly rolled. There was no one there.
“Vernal?” Barton shouted, but there was no answer.
He jumped out of the window and left… Barton frowned. He looked around seriously and discovered that the books on the bookshelf were in a mess.
It was a set of historical books that were split into three-parter volumes.
Barton’s habit was to arrange them from right to left, and now it was going from left to right.
He took a deep breath and quickly walked over to retrieve the three books.
After a thorough examination, Barton found that a page in the middle had been folded.
He quickly flipped to that page and opened a corner.
Scribbled there simply with a pencil were the words:
“The refugees of the Fourth Epoch worshiped an evil god.”
Man… Barton panicked and turned horrified. He stuffed the book back.
Without much thought, he ran out of the study and towards the stairs, preparing to find the deputy director of the Compliance Department, Pacheco. He wanted to tell him about his discovery and get him to request the police to protect his family.
After exiting the house, Barton slowed down and considered an important question:
Where do I go to find Pacheco?
The Clough Hotel, the Stoen police headquarters, or the foundation?
After a brief moment of thought, Barton decided to return to the foundation and look for other employees of the Compliance Department.
At that moment, a rental carriage stopped outside his door as Pacheco Dwayne alighted.
“We discovered that Vernal came to your house again,” the deputy director of the Compliance Department explained quickly.
Barton heaved a sigh of relief and replied without hesitation, “Yes, but he has already left.
“However, he left some clues behind.”
After saying this, Barton led Pacheco into his own house, went to his study, and handed him the book.
Pacheco looked at it for a while, then gently slid his finger across the surface of the text.
Right on the heels of that, he took out the pencil he had used previously and wrote beside Vernal’s comment.
“Call the police!”
After doing all of this, Pacheco stuffed the book back to its original position.
However, he didn’t push the book in completely.
This way, the entire row of books had one book bulging out.
“Alright, let’s return to the foundation and have lunch. We’ll wait for the good news from the police.” Pacheco clapped his hands.
Barton didn’t understand the reason behind this senior lawyer’s actions, but he didn’t ask why.
He really didn’t want to get involved in this matter. He felt that he couldn’t bear it at all.
Barton then fabricated a few reasons to his wife before returning to the foundation with Pacheco to begin his daily work.
When it was tea time, he had just finished an ancient book’s appraisal when he heard someone knocking on the door.
“We’ve got some clues. We need to go to your place,” said Pacheco, who was wrapped in a gray scarf and standing by the door.
“Clues?” Barton rose in surprise.
Pacheco didn’t give a direct answer. He spread out his hands and made an inviting gesture.
Barton couldn’t refuse and went home with the other party.
“Vernal came again!” His wife clearly sensed that something was amiss and went to the door in horror.
“It’s fine. Just some minor problems.” Barton maintained his image as a man and consoled his wife.
When he arrived at the study, he and Pacheco discovered that, yet again, Vernal had escaped.
“Damn it, can’t he just wait for a while?” Barton couldn’t help but grumble.
“It’s alright.” Pacheco walked up to the bookshelf and pulled out the book.
Clearly, Vernal had read his suggestion, as the book was completely stuffed into the bookshelf.
“I guess I know where Vernal is.” Pacheco closed his eyes, smiling.
Barton was stunned.
“How do you know?”
Pacheco opened his eyes and replied with a smile, “He accepted my bribe—no, a gift. But that isn’t right either. The most accurate description should be a suggestion.
“Of course, he might not accept it.”
With that said, the deputy director of the Compliance Department walked past Barton and out of the study.
Barton followed behind him subconsciously, leaving his own borough and turning into a nearby street.
At the end of the street, there was a house that had collapsed due to a fire.
“They actually haven’t started reconstruction efforts,” Barton whispered.
Pacheco put on a pair of white gloves again, and his expression became a little stern.
Through the rather intact main door, he entered the half-collapsed hall.
Black pieces of wood were strewn across the ground, blocking the lower half of a person’s body.
The figure was wearing a brown jacket with a red nose. He looked very stocky and was none other than the archaeologist, Vernal.
Barton secretly exhaled and asked anxiously, “Why didn’t you call the police?”
“They’re monitoring the police station,” Vernal replied without a change in expression.
Barton blurted out, “Why didn’t you leave Stoen and go to other cities to report to the police?”
“They’re monitoring the steam locomotive station,” Vernal replied in the same tone.
Barton thought for a moment and frowned.
“You have many ways to leave Stoen. They can’t seal off a city.”
Upon hearing this question, Vernal’s expression gradually changed as he said with a slightly ethereal tone, “I sensed the will of that great existence…”
